Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5 1937 – May 31 2000) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from Gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco.
Musical Career
Early years
Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records label in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group Highway QCs, which had been founded by a young Sam Cooke. His singing was strikingly close to that of Sam Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in Cooke's gospel group, the Soul Stirrers, in 1957.
A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on and recorded "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962. However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke's death in 1964.He was a good man.
Stax Records
In 1966, Taylor moved to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul". Whilst there he recorded with the label's house band, Booker T. & the MGs. His hits included "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (both written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter) and most notably "Who's Making Love?", which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1968.
During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone", "Cheaper to Keep Her" (Mack Rice) and record producer Don Davis's penned "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)". Taylor, along with Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers was one of the label's flagship artists.
Columbia Reocrds
After Stax folded in the mid 1970s, Taylor switched to Columbia Records, where he made his best known hit, "Disco Lady", in 1976. "Disco Lady" was the first certified platinum single (two million copies sold) by the RIAA.
Malaco Records
After a brief stint at Beverly Glen Records, Taylor signed with Malaco Records after the label's founder Tommy Couch and producing partner Wolf Stephenson heard him sing at blues singer, Z.Z. Hill's funeral in the spring of 1984.
Backed by members of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as well as in-house veterans like former Stax keyboardist Carson Whitsett, Malaco gave Taylor the type of recording freedom that Stax had given him in the late 1960s and early 1970s, enabling him to record ten albums for the Malaco label in his sixteen year stint.
In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco,
Good Love!, made it to Number One on
Billboard's Blues chart (#15 R&B), and was the biggest record in Malaco's history. With this success, Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas in the summer of 1997.
Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased soul music icons Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and MGs drummer Al Jackson, among others. In one verse, Taylor sang,
"I didn't want to wake up/I was havin' such a good time".
Death
Taylor died of a heart attack at Charleton Methodist Hospital in Dallas in 2000.
Awards
Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999.
Musical influence
In 2004, the UK's Shapeshifters sampled Taylor's 1982 "What About My Love?", for their #1 hit single, "Lola's Theme".
Personal life
Taylor has three children that have been recording artists, the best known of which is Floyd Taylor, a Malaco signee whose first album was entitled
Legacy.
External links
American blues musiciansAmerican male singersAmerican rhythm and blues singersDeaths by myocardial infarctionAmerican gospel singersPeople from ArkansasSoul musicians1937 births2000 deaths
